Outlook: Brock Cleveland, Mohawk's boys coach who also assists with the girls, said he's feeling good about the Warriors this season.

"I'm pretty excited about the girls," he said. "I wouldn't say the league's wide open, but we definitely have enough to contend."

Part of the reason for Brock Cleveland's optimism is the fact that the school's girls cross country team - which he also coaches - won the MAL this fall, and those girls also are participating in track.

"Our distance core right now is pretty competitive," he said. "We won the league in cross country. That doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna win the distance events, but I think we might be able to go out and double place in those events, which is gonna help us."

But it's not just the distance group that has the veteran mentor upbeat.

"We have a nice sprinting core coming back from last year," he said. "We really didn't lose - I mean, we lost Julia Daniel - but as far as our sprints are concerned, we kept a lot of that core, so I think that's really going to help."

Brock Cleveland said the Warriors have some important returners to help out those events.

"Ali Konkle, she hurdles for us, but she's also one of our better sprinters. We're gonna look for her to do some big things," he said. "Aubrie Flood, she's a senior, she's been part of a couple regional qualifying teams. Those girls are going to be the leaders. Kayla Risner runs middle distance for me, but she also runs the 400 and 200, those girls are going to have to step up and get some points for us if we want to be competitive."

And the assistant said they should be.

"We have Ali in the hurdles, so if we can double place in some of the distance stuff and our sprinters can be competitive, and Ali places and does well in the hurdles, as long as we can piece together and do something in the field - which is where we're gonna be weak - who knows," he said.